The Field of Gold

Why is the Liquidamber changing now ?

2012-02-19T21:41:00.000+13:00

The Liquidamber trees on the property are behaving strangely. Or are they ? A beautiful tree from the eastern United States Liquidamber are famed for brilliant autumn colour. We are now getting very red leaves - but it seems very early. It's still summer here and HOT.

February in our southern hemisphere summer is theoretically the same as August in the northern hemisphere. Is that what happens to them in their homeland. I really don't know and maybe someone can tell me?

February 18th 2012. Autumn Colour in February.

It's not just this year, and maybe it has always happened. Maybe I just noticed.This is the progress last year.

http://thefieldofgold.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/autumn-liquidamber.html

Red very early. But I still like those beautiful leaf shapes.

One thing that occurs to me is that the soil is too acid. So I have just got a test kit. We shall see. It's also very dry here this summer, and only about 300 mm a year, but we do have a computerised irrigation system to every tree. Days have been 20 to 30 Degrees centigrade. (86 to 68 Fahrenheit) and warm at nights. With no cold snap.

Scarlet Oak. Starting red as well.

There are also about 60 scarlet oak planted, which have the same early autumnal signs, although much less intense and early. Look at this link of the progress in 2011.

http://thefieldofgold.blogspot.co.nz/2011/04/scarlet-oak-in-autumn.html?utm_source=BP_recent

We like colour around here. Gleditsia between

Anybody who lives where these trees are native might care to tell me how early they expect the Autumn colour to first show. Is it really August ?? Comments below please.

Camera shy California Quail

2012-01-20T07:26:00.000+13:00

Cute as they are California Quail just won't co-operate for my camera. But the tribe of them that lives in our field are a continuing fascination. This summer there are four or five adults and about 15 chicks. I often come across them, sometimes gathered around a tree or moving through the grass like a school of fish.

These birds were bought here from the United States many years ago, and like many of our plants and flowers found Central Otago just like their California homeland and they have flourished.

It's really hard to see and hard to get a distinct photo of them. But there is always a leader that takes responsibility. It gets up on a vantage point and supervises the group and leads them away from danger.

See several chicks here. ? Try looking up from and left of center.

See some more ? Try center and left of center. An adult too.

The leader likes to keep the chicks away from the car. It's a threat to them, just like it is to children. I did get this lucky photo from the car window right at the front gate as the leader supervised them.

Supervision from a height. The control tower.

Once I encountered the group on the driveway so I abruptly stopped the car. A good vantage point. One by one the chicks gathered up courage and darted across in front of me to rejoin the adults. A clear count. Fifteen.

A fancy plume for the boss Quail

Another time returning from town on the driveway near the house I scattered the whole group. Next thing I noticed the boss bird perched on "Angus" - our steel rabbit. "Angus" is a good vantage point from which to call the group together. And from which the bird was able to keep a very good eye on me and make sure I was not going to interfere.

"I can see you human. I am watching you."

"You chicks get over here. We are moving away from this human."

And off they went.

end.

Guiding the eye.

2012-01-07T16:09:00.003+13:00

Planning the gaps between the groups of trees was as important as planning where the trees would be. The gaps are starting to make their mark in what seven years ago was a bare paddock. Some cunning plans are only now becoming real.

From the house the shaped lawn guides your view outwards. As the far trees become more significant, the gaps will draw the eye further.

The plantings are starting to bracket the view.

The driveway also comes down through the trees and across the gap. Revealing a brief view of the house out in the open, before the trees hide it again.

A photo taken from on top of the pergola, with some labels might explain it better. But the best explanation will come as the trees fill out into a denser visual barrier. And the gaps take more significance. But while that's going to take some years yet, now it's starting to show.

The end point is the far Pisa Range. Higher than it seems from here. Snow covered in winter.

The gap above is outlined between the Elms and the Walnuts. The Elms are dense enough, but the walnuts have been a little disappointing. However I see all of the neighbourhood young walnuts are a little ratty, but the older ones are grand and well grown. So it will be OK.

I have been calling this an Allee. (to myself) But I now see the definitions of that word seem to be all about an avenue. With two long rows of tree on each side. Not sure of what the name is now.

My 'Allee', stops at the neighbours pine trees about 300 meters out, and then there is another shelter belt about a kilometer away. I think a stroll over there with the chain saw, to deal with 5 big trees out of each row would improve things a lot. But not with the owners of the trees I think !!

Evening light and cloud over the mountain

2011-12-31T22:12:00.002+13:00

I just love the burnished evening light here and it's a privilege to walk amongst it. Clouds like this make it even more special.

Clouds over the mountain with evening light on the field.

Christmas market

2011-12-24T20:56:00.001+13:00

Our local farmers market at Cromwell usually is Sunday morning but that market day would have been Christmas day, so it shifted to Saturday. It's fine summer here and the produce is just starting to become abundant.

It's very local and we know most of the producers. But it's not so much for everyday vegetables, rather it's for the good things of life, like wine, cheeses and flowers and we went of our morning coffee. We also got the other two essentials -- wine and flowers.

I will never get over how good our mountains are here. Lake to the right.

In fifty years between1860-1910, tons of gold passed through the this little remote town. The tradition continues.

Are we here for supplies or to catch up with friends?

Bannockbrae Wines. Early yet but sensibly placed in the sun.


I don't get the local fascination with Whitebait which is a tiny river fish. Matchstick size, usually eaten in a fritter or 'pattie'. Northburn station wines even have their own helicopter to access the remote West Coast river where they take the whitebait. Look through the stall to see the lake.

More social time

It was early and the market was still setting up and some stalls only just unpacking. But it's a good time before the queues begin and the sun starts to bake.

Young Enterprise.

Peonies are well past the end of the season but these are still in great shape. So we got some. Peonies love Central Otago.

End.

Christmas is Summer

2011-12-23T20:33:00.000+13:00

In the southern hemisphere Christmas is high summer. 30 degrees Centigrade today (that's 80 degrees for you Americans ) We don't get humidity but the bad side of that is unfiltered blazing sun outside that would fry you, makes having a cold drink inside very attractive.

Stinking hot out. Cooler inside.

Its far too hot to do any work on the land today so its down to the lake for a swim. You don't need a long swim and a quick circuit of the pontoon is just about right.

Lake, Pontoon. And a doggie who just hates a posed photo.

Bannockburn Inlet. Lake Dunstan. December 23rd 2011.

Turns out the kids on the pontoon are Swedish. Here seems a sensible place to be considering the season in Sweden right now.

Scarlet Oaks. Together at last.

2011-12-11T19:18:00.001+13:00

Three hundred major specimen trees were planted six years ago. Each seemed small and isolated, alone in the field. But no more. A milestone has been reached.

Walking across the field last evening, I came across two scarlet Oaks, growing together and touching. It's the first time any of the specimen trees has joined with another. It will take another century or two to appear, but the intended result is starting to show.

2011. Leaves at the end of the Scarlet Oak branches start to touch.

Placed closely to form a quick visual mass the Scarlet Oaks, Liquidambers, Walnuts, Golden Elms and London Planes are planted in groups of not less than twenty of each variety

2011. The trees above are, left to right, Scarlett oak, Golden Elm, Scarlet Oak, Liquidamber.

It started as bare ground and tough ground at that. Just an inch of turf with river gravel beneath. No nutrients and doesn't hold water. Every single tree has it's own dripper irrigation system.

This is how it was in late 2005 six years ago. The bright green tree guards in the distance mark the oaks that have now grown so well.

2005. New trees. London plane in front. Golden Elm to the left. Scarlet to the middle and right.

The grass was short back then. Before we fenced the rabbits out.

The California trees that came to New Zealand

2011-12-03T20:39:00.001+13:00

It had been an interesting drive north from Los Angeles. Following a 12,000 kilometer flight across the Pacific that had not crossed land. But I was past San Simeon before I saw the first of the Macrocarpa trees that I had come such a long way to see.

That single tree stood alone in a field, but I then began to see more of them as I wound my way onto the fabled Big Sur road. My destination was the nature reserve at Point Lobos.

Macrocarpa and Radiata Pine, (Known there as Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pine) began to appear more frequently the more I traveled north. They seemed to be in places close to the road, and most likely planted. Because in the whole world the Macrocarpa only occurs naturally on only a few hundred acres, on two sites.

Big Sur Highway. Macrocarpa and some Radiata Pine behind.

At home in New Zealand these two probably are the most familiar tree. They are everywhere and the pine, Radiata is in vast plantations. The Macrocarpa often surrounds older farmsteads and sometimes it's a lonely house site where the house has long since disappeared.

Monterey Pine. "Radiata Pine. Big Sur. September 2011.

The Radiata is the most planted tree in the world now. With massive plantings in South America, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. But it's natural range is nearly as restricted as Macrocarpa, with only a dozen or so sites in California.

Planted Radiata off the Big Sur Road. Notice the 'wilding' young pines further down the hill.

Not many trees but the Bixby bridge is a Big Sur icon. Nearly as good as the Grafton Bridge in Auckland

Monterey Pine at Point Lobos. Just 5 Kilometers south of 'Carmel by the Sea' California.

Radiata. Monterey Pine.

"The greatest meeting of land and water in the world." is the bold claim for Point Lobos. And there is something amazing here at Point Lobos. It seems the whole coastline here is a ferment of life. Whales and seals abound.

There is no bad place to point the camera. Just like Central Otago.

Seals, sea lions and sea otters. It can't be a surprise. This place is incredible.

The orange stuff above is a green algae. With Carotene ! Don't ask me how that works. But it doesn't harm the trees.

It's been a beautiful blue day but not hard to sense that that fog is the norm here. I am told these trees have months without rain in the summer and gain their moisture from the coastal fogs. Not so sure I can understand that either. I am very familiar with these trees at home in New Zealand and none of them I am sure needs fog.

Macrocarpa. Monterey Cypress. Notice the dry ground.

There is a seal down there

Evening in 'Carmel by the sea'. Time for a beer and a steak. But spot the macrocarpa. The big trees are Pine.

It would be easy to say that the trees came to New Zealand with the gold rush miners from California and likely some did. But the first known Radiata was planted in New Zealand in 1859 at Mount Peel Station a full two years before the gold rush. That's about 250 Kilometers north of our gold field. It was an unpopulated area and it's unlikely there were more than a dozen humans between the two areas.

In those days (1850s) development of farming in southern New Zealand was not by struggling pioneer families. It was the time of the land barons, well capitalised big enterprises with dozens of employees and the resources to import and develop what they needed in quantity. Many of the early specimens came via nurseries and botanical interests in England, France and Australia, and of course California.

Some suggestions as to how the Monterey trees came to New Zealand.

Despite their unique and limited natural range both Macrocarpa and Radiata have great usefulness. They are used for planted and managed forests all over the world.

Macrocarpa Plantation. Note the pruning that has been done to ensure knot free and straight timber.

Radiata is now the most planted tree in the world in hugely commercial plantations. There is a big timber industry based around Radiata.

A local Radiata plantation. Straight lines and precision.

This local managed plantation is used to stablise encroaching sand.

Rural Areas across New Zealand feature Radiata and Macrocarpa Shelter Belts. Most farms will have these trees forming a background in the landscape.

All of the dark trees in this photo of the 'Field of Gold' are Radiata, the Monterey Pine a long way from home. The shadow in the foreground is formed by a big belt of radiata that shelters the house from the winter winds. The big tree to the left of middle is a radiata. And the band of Radiata from left to right across the photo are really big specimens. They are well distant -- nearly a kilometer away.

These two tree varieties are grown because their timber is so useful and forms most of New Zealand's forestry and timber industry and Radiata especially is the major construction timber here now.

The lovely neighbours building a deck.

This deck is really large, well built and has taken a lot of timber. Macrocarpa decking, Monterey Cypress, with a frame of Radiata, Monterey pine. The steps are Radiata. Note the big Radiata and the small one to the left in the photo above. And that yellow patch is California Poppy.

Radiata big timber frame, Macrocarpa Decking. Radiata trees and Mt Difficulty.

(you do have to look again at the photo, at the light on our mountain.)

So these trees have come a long way from California. Cypress and Pine from those rare sites are an everyday part of our New Zealand landscape.

- End

Miners Lettuce

2011-10-12T23:09:00.003+13:00

The Californians who came here for the gold rush left a legacy of Monterey Pine, California Poppy and California Quail.

Another thing that did come then was Miners Lettuce. But unlike the others is not growing wild now. I had to have some. Eventually I found some in a farmers market hundreds of kilometers north of here. There is a little mystery with it. Is it really the same as Californian miners lettuce ?

Hastings Farmers Market. June 2011.

It went into the vegetable garden straight away.

October 2011

Four months and it's growing well, right through the netting I put there to keep off the rabbits.

But is it really Californian Miners lettuce?It doesn't look quite like Sue's post and pictures in her wonderful Sierra Blog. http://sierrafoothillgarden.wordpress.com/2011/05/11/enough-miners-lettuce-for-a-salad/ My plants have no flower stalks through the leaves? But maybe they will come.

So I picked my first crop. Well - a handful.

Picked some. That's a wine barrel they are on.

Later I am called for lunch which is Mesclun lettuce and sprouts in a salad, Miners lettuce in addition and some Prawns on top. Straight balsamic as a dressing worked well. Yes, I am well looked after.

Chilli prawn on salad. It's going to be a wonderful summer.

Miners Lettuce got it’s name from it’s use by the miners who used it to prevent scurvy. 100 grams of miner's lettuce—about the size of a decent salad—contains a third of your daily requirement of Vitamin C, 22 percent of the Vitamin A, and 10 percent of the iron.

It’s natural home is the west coast of the United States and centered in northern California.

While it had been bought to Europe by the early explorers in the 1700s the population explosion in California bought the American miners in 1949 - the “49ers”

Given the limited diet options of the miners in both California and Otago – they were known to travel into the wilderness taking only a sack of flour – the miners lettuce was useful. It could be planted and harvested very easily. And provided an essential food alternative.

But of course we have yet to see if it develops the same as the Californian plants. But in the meantime eating it works well for us.

Mount Difficulty. (Not the winery) Ten views.

2011-09-01T21:17:00.026+12:00

Mt Difficulty dominates. It changes in aspect every hour of the day and every day of the year.

This is a series of ten images of our mountain.

June 2011. From the track by the river.

Mt Difficulty was named by the gold rush miners as they walked into the area. It was impossible to travel further upriver though the gorge you can see. So they went up and over the mountain. It was possible....... but not easy.

The kilometer of river you can see was the home of the worlds most successful gold dredge from 1900 to 1918.

Number two. Our mountain dominates the field.

August 2010. Our mountain looms over the Garden shed.

Number three.

April 2008. Autumn.

Turning into our road there is the mountain. It's always with us.

Number four. Doggie, or 'Bud' which is one of his many names, takes Mt Difficulty entirely for granted. It's simply always there.

"Sir Budleigh of Bannockburn" with his mountain.

Number five. Important discussions. Two men, one doggie, one mountain.

Summer evening. January 2010

Number six. The light of morning comes to our mountain first.

17th July 2011. Winter Morning

Number seven.

When the afternoon sun is low over Mt Difficulty the mountain is patches of shadow and light.

September 2009. Doggie snoozes on the building site. Mt Difficulty in shadow.

Number eight

January 2010.

Number nine

The impassible river gorge. And the mountain that the gold rush miners found merely 'difficult' to cross.

Number ten


Vines, wind machines, and the ever present mountain.

End

A Lavender Patch follows the Lavender Border

2011-08-23T05:26:00.007+12:00

In August 2010 we planted a Lavender Border with outstanding success -so far. Look at this link to see how it is doing.

See the Lavender Border post. Link to "Border of Lavender" post

While we wait a year or two a fine patch of lavender near the back door then seemed a good idea. Or even better, a closely planted set of rows something like this.

What we would love to have. (Not my photo)

The patch we decided on was a sort of triangle, with 5 rows of plants. Planted in rows 900mm apart and 800mm between the rows. I have found it wise to put a lot of effort into marking out the pattern using wooden stakes.

Planted in rows, total cover of weed suppressing mat, and an irrigation system.

It's mark out, plant out, lay out weed mat and set up the irrigation lines. The weed mat is essential. It gives the lavender protection from the strong competition in the early phases. The "Vipers Bugloss" can smother the ground and grow a meter or more in a single season.
Vipers Bugloss a wonderful plant. Aaah - in a way, but really it would destroy the lavender.
Link to Vipers Bugloss Post.

When the lavender is established in a couple of years, the weedmat can be pulled out. In the meantime it is there and the only problem is that it is really really ugly

30 plants in five rows. Planted March 2011. Just before the southern winter.

Lavender is a dry country plant. But with only stones to grow in here and our desert like conditions irrigation is still required at least at the start. Drippers are best. Lavenders would not do well with overhead sprinklers.

In this climate every plant needs a water dripper

Update: November 27th 2011. After only 7 months in the ground there has been a surge of spring growth. In only a few weeks the plants have sprouted lots of green new growth and flower stalks. This variety will flower at Christmas.

27th November 2011. A surge of growth

These 'super' plants grow really big. I am really looking forward to seeing this group of 30 plants form into a single visual mass. It will be amazing.

31st December 2011. Great Progress..

- End -- for now.

It's winter now in the Southern Hemisphere

2011-08-07T15:19:00.001+12:00

My beautiful Daughter in law who lives in Washington D.C. opposite the Watergate says it's stinking hot there. And humid and uncomfortable as well.

But here in the South Island of New Zealand it's still winter. The ski season is in full cry and the plants lie dormant. This morning some very light snow skittered past the window. Some mornings it frosts, with a mist. But that usually goes by mid morning leaving our usual blue skies and sunshine.

A nightmare looms out of the mist !

Angus the Steel Rabbit.

Sir Budleigh of Bannockburn. "Bud" to his many friends.

Blue ski above. Another hour and it will be bright sunshine. Sunglasses will be required.

Next month I will be in Downtown Washington D.C. That will be different

Growing Shade. Vines on the Pergola.

2011-07-30T10:16:00.000+12:00

Great beauty is one thing. But the Iron Pergola along the north side of the house also has a practical use. It provides important climate control. Maximum warm sun into the house in winter is important. Summer provides a fierce challenge, so shade and shelter is necessary.

Getting quick growth is what we want and grapevines will do what we need. "Ornamental" grapes are beautiful, provide autumn colour, but don't drop great wet dollops of fruit onto the terrace, nor do they attract the wasps.

The problem here is as always. It's the ground. Gravel is tough for any plant, especially establishing. Cold winters and hot desert summers don't help. Luckily we had the big digger so it only took a few minutes to get some big holes and then each had about half a trailer load of 'superdirt'

December 2009. Compost to replace the gravel

Largely the vines are selected for autumn colour. There are five plants:

Three: Vitis Amuriensis

One: Vitis vinifera 'purpurea' (Claret vine Tienturier grape)

One: Vitis coignetiae. (Japanese Crimson Glory Vine)

Planting was quick.

27th December 2009

Growth was even better. Two months and about one meter. Notice the second vine from the right (Claret Vine) is showing autumn colour already in February. It's only going to go better as autumn comes on. Notice the irrigation pipe for the drippers. Later in the year a new sprinkler system for the lawn will do that job.


21st February 2010.

By May 2010 the vines were well up over the pergola. About two meters of growth in less than five months. Notice the autumn colours.

15th May 2010

Next summer the vine will be well along the pergola. And providing lots of shade.

May 2010.

When the leaves went, I trimmed all the side branches at the base of each vine right off. Might not be the best thing for rapid growth. Any leaf assists the plant growth. But I also seek the vine to have a large standard trunk, with no leaves, right up to the canopy overhead. I want all the leaves to be overhead on the canopy. So it's a risk.

One clearly dumb thing I did though was to accidently snip the leader of the middle vine. At about a meter from the ground. A seasons growth lost.

July 2010

30th December 2010. One year after planting

Vine growth took off vigourously during late spring and early summer.

19th March 2011. End of the summer growth and Autumn colour well begun.

Over the summer the prime task was to prune the wild laterals and ensure there was a sensible pattern of growth over the framework. We did not want to end up with a nest of spaghetti. Attention in the first year would make maintaining the vines in very easy future years.

10th April 2011. Autumn leaf colour on an Autumn misty morning.

24th July 2011. Winter Frost. Vines trimmed back. Ready for the next year.

To be continued.

Carrick Water Race

2011-05-10T09:00:00.026+12:00

The Carrick Water Race brings vital water 34 kilometers across high altitude mountains, out of the lonely Nevis Valley. Built rapidly from 1872 to 1874, to sell water to the miners of Bannockburn, it had many financial drama's, but remains today an essential asset to the local community.

Nevis valley. You can see the water race running level across the hillside left of centre.

Passing out of the Nevis Valley via the Duffers saddle

Winding across high and lonely places. Look closely to see the water race.

Emerging high, 1000 meters above the cultivated valley

The water originally drove waterwheels for stamper machinery in hard rock gold quartz mines that ran along this mountain range. There were even settlements here, but now all long gone. The water wheel for the 'Young Australian' mine remains. Incongruous set high on a mountainside in the dry landscape.

The last remaining water wheel. The Young Australian Mine. Not my photo.

There were bitter legal disputes as miners regarded themselves as purchasing the water completely, and objected to the the race owners reselling it to other users further down the mountain.

The names of these mines are legendary. I just have to list them.

1. The Elizabeth. 2. Royal Standard. 3. Star. 4. Heart of Oak - later Last Shot. 5. Young Australian. 6. Caledonian. 7. Border Chief. 8. Crown and Cross. 9. Day Dawn. 10. John Bull. 11 Norwegian. 12. Perseverance Reef. 13. Perseverance Claim. 14. Veil of Avoca. 15. New Royal Standard. 16. Golden Star. 17. Dawn of Hope. 18. Duke of Cumberland. 19. Rob Roy. 20. Matchless. 21. Excelsior - afterwards Welcome. 22. Black Horse. 23. Coleen Bawn. 24. Nil Desperandum. 25. Patience. 26. Leader. 27. Robert Burns. 28. Golden Gate. 29. All Nations. 30. Kohinoor, or Amateur. 31. Golden Phoenix. 32. Heart of Lothian. 33. Enterprise. 34. White Horse - later Try again and Last Chance. 35. Golden Crown. 36. United Bannockburn. 37. Bonanza -later Frying pan. 38. Go by.

Recently I enjoyed a wonderful bottle of of Pinot Noir named after the "Crown and Cross"

You might ask why the water was not drawn out of the river and the lake. But there was not the money for the technology and engineering, and certainly not the energy source to run it.
The water from the high Carrick race was the only energy source. What else they had was human muscle, spades and shovels. With Victorian enterprise and determination they dug this water race.

Doggie examines where water is dropped off into a side gully.

To distribute the water for farming and orchards an intricate network of water races has developed at the lower end.

Bottom left you can see where water is drawn again out of the side gully.

Bannockburn is the driest area in New Zealand and the vast amounts of earth moved in mining at the foot of the mountains would not have been possible without the power of this water.

Eventually in the 1890s as the mining went into decline the race was nearly abandoned, but fortunately was taken over by the farming interests and remains the huge asset it is today.

In this final picture you can see a distribution race on the far hillside, dry and brown above and green and lush below. Close up you can see another minor channel distributing water across the paddocks, and a dry channel running away from the camera.

You can also see an iron sheet blocking water flow into the dry channel The "Raceman" moves around constantly changing the water flow to achieve the desired distribution.

end.

It wanted to eat the dog

2011-05-01T18:59:00.003+12:00

About twenty minutes upriver is the Peregrine Winery. We stop there on our way to Arrowtown where we sometimes go to get our morning coffee. "The Peregrine" is a bird of prey, also known as "The New Zealand Falcon" and also "The Karearea."

This amazing bird has got attitude. It's a mean hunting machine and does not give up it's prey easily. It's also not large and this actual size bronze sculpture shows that well. Notice the 'Peregrine Pinot Noir' and 'The Karearea Pinot Gris' behind.

Note the wine names.

I had never seen a falcon, as they are rare and I think stay high in the mountains. In the winter time perhaps they will come down. Then in July 2010 (our southern winter) one made a low fast pass. Probably at Doggie.

Mean machine in action. Not my photo

Doggie and myself were about two meters apart, near the drive,near the front gate, I was weeding around some small trees while Doggie played around.

It's a good life being a Doggie.

A falcon came from behind me at full speed (70-100km per hour ) and passed by at waist height, close enough to touch if I reached out, and just as close to the dog. I think it was interested in the dog but then decided against that. Doggie is small but he is bigger than the rabbits that the falcons apparently eat around here.

Not my photo.

The Falcon shot about one hundred meters out, did a fancy turn, scared a flock of birds, and passed back over our heads, only a couple of meters up. It then perched in a pine tree where it could watch us.

And watched us for quite a while. Doggie was being given good consideration.

The New Zealand Falcon is rare. Many people, including myself have never seen one. We see plenty of the larger Harrier Hawk here, but the hawk is quite different from the Falcon once you know what to look for.

In our field we often come across the remains of a rabbit. It's not clear to me who or what causes that although I have seen hawks carrying small rabbits. Each pair of falcons needs a hunting territory large enough to feed themselves and their young. The territory can vary from 9 square kilometres in open country, to 75 square kilometres in dense forest where prey is harder to find. They defend their area from other falcons.

I will be watching, there has been more going on in the field than I realised. And I need to keep an eye on Doggie

The Peregrine Winery is a stylish place as are the wines.

The barrel room

The roof of the building represents the Peregrines wing.

Peregrine winery.

End

Autumn Liquidamber

2011-04-30T11:05:00.000+12:00

A progression of photos as the autumn colour comes in. Most of these in the view are Liquidamber (Sweetgum) which originates in the United States. Some scarlet oak behind and golden elm to the far left Planted in the winter of 2005. Did not think these were going to last for the first three years. But in the last two have really taken off.

6th February 2011

20th February 2011

19th March 2011

26th March 2011

9th April 2011

end.

Living in the Rain Shadow.

2011-04-21T07:54:00.107+12:00

Wind roars across the southern oceans west to east bearing vast amounts of moisture. Then smashes into the west side of our mountains, the 'Southern Alps". dumping a lot of rain in a very small area. That leaves a dry 'rain shadow' to the eastern side. The difference is remarkable. Over just 60-80 kilometers, a saturated rain forest changes to bone dry desert like land.

The same effect occurs in southern Chile, which has rainforest as the weather dumps on the western side of the southern Andes mountains. The eastern side of the Andes are dry, forming the magnificent and distinctive landscapes of Patagonia, southern Argentina.

It's dry in the 'rain shadow' but huge rivers flow out of the mountains and across the dry places. Here the Kawarau river flows out of it's gorge past the back gate of "The Field of Gold". It's no small river with an average flow of 218 Cumecs (Cubic Meters per Second).

The 'Field of Gold' is on the right of the river as it flows out of the gorge. Near the white Cherry nets.

Living in the rain shadow means we also have bright sunny days most of the time. Here at Bannockburn we have the driest place in New Zealand which would usually make it hard to grow things. But we have access to vast amounts of water.

But it's not like the United States where 25 million people rely on equivalent rivers like the Colorado with no alternative. Here fewer people than 50,000 people rely on the local rivers, the Kawarau, the bigger Clutha, and their huge cousin the Waitaki river, just over the hill.

A few years ago this was dry barren rocky land. Now vineyards. Because of the application of water.

This photo joins the one above. Lake Dunstan, fed by two major rivers. The Kawarau and the Clutha.

There were some storms and floods in the mountains, not that we knew much about it as the rain did not reach us in any quantity. In the news we saw a rare event, the Benmore Dam on the Waitaki was spilling. A rare event which only happens about once a year.

So we had a day out. Up over and down the Lindis pass about 150 Kilometers.

It was spectacular.

This dam is huge. That's a couple of Kilometers away. ( more than a mile)

Disturbing at a distance. Scary up close.

There were certainly a lot of people there. Many had come hundreds of kilometers to the middle of the nowhere to see this.

The Waitaki river averages about 340 cumecs. Running in these photos at about 1200 cumecs although a lot of that is going through the power turbines and not down the spillway. The spillway can handle 3400 cumecs. The day that happens I am not coming anywhere near the frightening thing.

Autumn in April

2011-04-16T19:54:00.001+12:00

Autumn evening in Central Otago

Click on the photo for a bigger image

End

Scarlet Oak in Autumn

2011-04-16T19:50:00.000+12:00

Christmas in New Zealand is high summer. So autumn in Central Otago is March, April and May.

Deep Autumn colour is rare in New Zealand, in fact we have very few trees at all that shed their leaves.

6th February 2011

20th February 2011

19th March 2011

There are about 60 Quercus Coccinea on the property, imports from the USA. They are planted in three groups of 20 on the driveway. Planted in the (our) winter of 2005.

26th March 2011

These trees grew very very slowly for a while but in the last two years have taken off. Adding much more than a meter each year.

Over the weeks the colour changes (of course). These photos are of a single tree. But the big effect is gained from the mass of trees together.

But that is for another post.

9th April 2011

Walking with the Wind Machines

2011-04-11T16:26:00.028+12:00

A common walk with doggie in the late evening is along the river bank downstream. Sometimes because of the looming darkness, walking back up the river bank is not so easy. Then it's useful to cut up through the long rows of the vineyard and out to the road passing these huge machines standing up high amongst the vines.

10 meters high perhaps. Propeller additional. Notice the sky.

A late frost in the springtime can knock back tender budding grapes and thus destroy the harvest due months later at the end of summer. Basically it's an emergency. But the propeller creates a wind, stirring up the cold layers of air that settle and form a frost. As the heads rotate in all directions, the layering is broken and the damage to the buds can be prevented.

Highly powered. This engine unit is about as tall as a person.

When things this powerful start up there is quite a fuss.


Dusk over the vineyard. The last of the sun is on the Dunstan Mountains. That 'nipple' is 'Leaning Rock'

Some months in springtime, anytime after midnight these machines can start to roar, with the blades adding that chopping sound of helicopters. With about six of these directly across the river, two next door and several real helicopters roaming the neighbourhood it's anything but peaceful in the small hours. Add to that lots of flashing lights, people roaring around in vehicles managing it all, and 4 am is not a dead hour.

It really helps having one of the most insulated houses one can have. Sound as well as cold stays out.

Walking the long rows at evening. I love the evening skies

This vineyard is the "Roaring Meg" vineyard of the Mt Difficulty Winery.based across the river. It's totally Pinot Noir grapes for which Central Otago is rightly famous. Mt Difficulty winery is a combination of many owners and vineyards here at Bannockburn. The "Mt Difficulty Roaring Meg Pinot Noir" wine is made separately and labeled separately under the Mt Difficulty label and you will be able to find it worldwide.

If you are so lucky you will find it rewarding

The mountain itself, Mt Difficulty is the one to the right, northern buttress of the Carrick Range.

It's a privilege to walk in this landscape.

The year of the (big) Central Otago Rabbit.

2011-04-01T15:50:00.002+13:00

Angus the rabbit is a new arrival in the field. He's made of Corten Steel so he won't be eating any of the plantings. But maybe he will give some of the humans a fright. We are not too sure of his exact ancestry. Is he a rabbit? Maybe he is a hare - he's got the ears for it.

Click on the photo for a larger image.

Standing about 1.6 meters tall (5 feet) he is rapidly developing a rust patina that suits the landscape. But his life span will be several hundred years.

Rabbit ears and Mt Difficulty. Click on the photo for a large image

Rabbits are a big issue in Central Otago. We spend a lot of effort getting rid of them and the entire property has a rabbit proof fence. We have to do that because of the ability of rabbits to destroy our whole landscape, and not just inside the fence. In the 1800s rabbits were introduced from Europe and within the decade managed to put some of the biggest sheep stations into bankruptcy. Not to mention the local fauna.

(For more on the rabbit problem see the post on this blog "Keeping out the rabbits"

Be careful. The big bunnies might be out to get you. Click on the photo for a large image

Angus in the field.

Angus was made by a young artist, Elisha Clarke, now living in Wellington.
Her family are artists in Roxburgh Central Otago.
Bill and Michele Clarke. www.forgedandcrafted.co.nz
Elisha Clarke. elisha.artist@gmail.com

Border of Lavender

2011-03-22T08:05:00.009+13:00

We put in a line of 75 Lavender plants in August 2010. Before then it was just a new lawn, needing a border to separate it visually from the field.

23rd July 2010. What we had.

What we are seeking of course is perfection. We would like our lawn like the one below, lined with lavender to outline the boundary, and to separate the plantings behind.

What we would like. But not my photo. Nor our property

The new lavenders are 'super' variety which will grow really quite large. With long flower stalks. Planted in a single long row at 900 centers they will grow into each other. There will be a long row of lavender winding around the edge of the lawn. Eventually.

First what we got was small 100mm lavenders growing out of black weedmat, with a prominent irrigation tube. 75 meters of it. Really ugly.

28th August 2010

Spring came and then summer with very pleasing growth. Every single plant.

January 2011. Nice size in five months. About 1.5 doggies tall

The idea is for them to form a big combined row or hedge barrier. It certainly looks like it's going to work out.

Growing together into a good row.

The plants were supplied by Karen Rhind of Briar Dell, a 'Garden of National Significance' a couple of kilometers up the road. http://www.nzsouth.co.nz/briardell/lavenderfarm.html Because of the season, Karen advised to cut them back early to enhance future growth and bushiness.

Late January 2011. Cut back to encourage further growth.

These now are all set to consolidate over the year and next season will be fantastic. I look forward to Christmas (our summer) when these will come into flower. And it seems the flowers will last a very long time each year.

Update:

27th November 2011. 15 months after planting.

It's coming into summer here and it's been warm, wet and sunny. All of those have made for a rare season of high growth here. There has been a burst of growth in the last three weeks and that will continue for two or three months yet.

27th November 2011.

I can't wait until Christmas and the New Year. These Lavender will be in magnificent bloom then. And I can't wait to see if each plant will join up with the others this year. These 'super' lavender will grow large, perhaps a meter high and outwards. I really want this row to be a big long hedge and I am waiting to see it.

31st December 2011. 16 months since planting.

18th January 2012. Theresa prunes back the Lavender.

The lavender was a little overdue for cutting back, but we had a garden party so wanted to keep it on a week or two. Best advice when the plants are young is to cut it back early to encourage future growth.

- End. For this year anyway.

Telephone line to the lonely Nevis

2011-03-13T20:57:00.000+13:00

The famed Nevis Valley is now all but deserted. It was not always so.

To get into "The Nevis" you have to drive right up over the Carrick Mountain Range and down the other side. 1300 meters (4000 feet) straight up then down on a quite minimal road.

1150 Meters (3400 feet) straight up.

There was/is a lot of gold in "The Nevis" and a gold rush in the 1860s with hundreds if not thousands of miners. A long period with 600 or so Chinese miners and later periods of gold dredges, those marvels of Victorian technology, working the river flats.

But few live there now and only about two people stay over on the cattle stations when the snow comes in the winter

There were no trees at all in this landscape when people first came. So the sole telephone (telegraph?) line was mounted on the rock outcrops which so typify our local mountains.

Telegraph line. No Trees mean no poles. So use what you have.

You can see how steeply this goes up.

The rocks were there and worked. Who needs timber poles?

Wises "Directory of every place in New Zealand 1912" has the entry.

"NEVIS, Otago. A mining settlement, 175 m north-west from Dunedin. Rail to Clyde, then coach via Cromwell and Bannockburn 20 m, thence by mail buggy bi-weekly (Monday and Friday) in summer (15s), returning following days; or rail to Garston, thence coach weekly (Friday) 20 miles (15s). Large areas have been taken up for dredging purposes, and six dredges are now working. Sluicing is also carried on to some extent. There are also first-class coal deposits showing here. One hotel. Roads bad. Telephone and post office. Doctor at Cromwell, 25 m"

The top

There is no telephone to the Nevis now. There are not enough people.

Down to a lonely valley

New Sauvignon Blanc Vines

2011-03-02T17:09:00.030+13:00

Conventional wisdom is that wine gets better as the vines grow more established. Wine writers will say that "such and such a new winery is very good - but - it will certainly be better as the vines get a little older." But is that in fact so ?

A friend from just three kilometers away came for a barbeque bringing with him some bottled delights with one unlabeled bottle from the new small vineyard he established around his house. So they can add Sauvignon Blanc to the range already offered.

It was great ! I sat up. Fresh and green but just wanting to make you enjoy summer! "Wow" I said. "That was just what I used to like about the great Savs of Malborough." (Marlborough being a wine region far north of here that became famous for it's Savs, -- but now seems to have lost that.

"Exactly" he said "they used to do those" We had a rare moment of agreement.

The mystery wine. No label yet.

I have developed a heretical theory. The Sav won't get better as the vines mature. The best wine will come from young vines. Of course it will become better with time in the bottle. But that's different.

Before I am burnt as a heretic, possibly on a pile of vine clippings, I have to point out Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is not as regarded as it was earlier on. By a number of people.

These 950 vines were planted in late 2006 and the first crop was picked at three and a half years in April 2010. Only 56 cases were made. (672 bottles) With a well known winemaker.

Anyway I retrieved the bottle from the recycle bin and took this photo. 50 cases will go to London with labels. Look out for a bottle with this "H" on the cap. There's a task! Let me know. Is the new theory correct?

Vipers Bugloss -- Who was Salvation Jane ?

2011-02-20T18:06:00.109+13:00

"Vipers Bugloss" is a weird name for a plant. But that's the one we use commonly. It's botanic name is "Echium Vulgare". On this property it grows well and colonises any disturbed ground. While most other things struggle to grow at all in our dry stones, the Vipers Bugloss can be quite impressive.

Anywhere the ground is disturbed. We get a good crop of Vipers Bugloss.

It seems "Bugloss" just means "Plant" or in particular a group of blue plants. "Vipers" refers to it's supposed use as a remedy for snakebite.

Fortunately we don't have any snakes on these islands.

Huge: Well over a meter in just a month or three.

Vipers Bugloss has a large taproot which goes down very deep allowing it to grow in dry infertile places. Originally introduced for cattle feed and for garden decoration. While very edible when young these plants become prickly and unpleasant to handle as they get bigger.

There is also a trade in the honey gathered and a local producer, Airbourne Honey, gathers and supplies it. Look at www.airborne.co.nz/Vipersb.shtml

You can see the attraction for the bees.

Some places the whole landscape turns blue with blossom before Christmas as we turn from spring into the heat of the southern summer.

A good addition to the view. Olive trees behind.

Vipers Bugloss is a native of Europe and Asia. Where it has been introduced in the USA, and Australia it has spread and is regarded as a pest.

"Echium plantagineum", another well known honey plant from Australia is a close relative. In Victoria it is called "Paterson's Curse" after the unfortunate family who made the mistake of introducing it. In the state of South Australia however it is called "Salvation Jane". Why ? Who was Jane ? What was her story ?

A crater remains

2011-02-10T19:15:00.018+13:00

Sometimes there are things that would be easy not to notice. And it's so difficult to get a photo that shows what actually there is. But here Doggie is standing on the edge of a crater, or depression in the ground that is over 600mm deep and about 6 meters in diameter. We have two of them. An neighbour tells me that explosives were used to take soundings leaving this crater and others. Listening and analysing the echos is like taking a radar view of the ground layers beneath.

Overgrown crater. With the ever present Doggie.

The theory has been that the river used to flow beneath here. Nowadays there is perhaps 50 to 100 meters of gravel over the original bed, forming the flat field we know. Find that original riverbed and you will find the same amounts of gold found that were found in the present riverbed. Maybe 20 million dollars under our 5 hectare field. There has been a constant interest for 150 years now.

It's had to tell how long ago this crater was formed.

When the Bell Kilgour mine was floated as a commercial enterprise in the early 1930s this field formed part of our New Zealand's most expensive land purchase ever. They paid massive amounts for an area of land of about one hundred acres - (old measurement.) (that's forty hectares of which we now own two)

See the post that relates to that.

http://thefieldofgold.blogspot.com/2010/09/tunneling-for-gold.html?utm_source=BP_recent

Seismic exploration would have been part of that development.

Another time seismic explosive survey might have formed the crater was in the 1980s. I have yet to investigate the history of two shafts sunk about 200 meters on either side of this crater. These were steel lined efforts about 50 meters deep and had all the benefits of expensive modern machinery. Both must have failed to find the original riverbed obviously as there was no further work.

But I also have another story of a shaft in 1942 which produced quite a lot of gold. Although it was only a four man operation. Not sure where that was. Maybe within a few hundred meters.

Seismic testing must have been quite a fuss. The crater today is a quiet mystery lying amongst the peaceful long grass.

This final photo shows a government sponsored seismic test just north of here at Bendigo in 1934, which was part of a series, maybe including our own crater.

Bendigo. 1934. How to disturb lots of rabbits.

Map of the vineyards

2011-01-31T17:56:00.000+13:00

I have this beautiful map framed on my officewall. It doesn't try to look old but is done in a style not often seen. When I look across the river to the Felton Road wineries it's a patchwork just like the map. The map shows the vineyards of the Mount Difficulty company, which is set amongst famous others.

You can get both a full screen version or a printable version of this at

http://www.mtdifficulty.co.nz/vineyards/index.html

'The field of gold' - our property - is on the north bank of the river about halfway left to right. That curling road that runs from Pearson Road to the river bank is our property.

Green lawn

2011-01-21T17:01:00.005+13:00

It's important we do not disturb the wonderful original state of the field. Most of the field in it's natural state has wonderful grasses and flowers, but it needs good footwear to walk on. To be livable the house needed to have some sort of lawn. Something to walk and play on in bare feet. In summertime we live outside.

December 2009. Rubble.

There is going to be a big contrast between the lawn and the field and at first also we had just rubble around the house.

Green lawns are not considered correct in some places because of the water use. Here, in this dry landscape we have huge rivers running through. With very small demand on their use and very low populations. While there is increasing agricultural demand in our area it will be managed well I believe.

Timing was important to establish a lawn in the rubble. It had to be done following the heat and dryness of February and before the winter. We hired a guy with vast expertise who leveled the ground with his tractor and leveling bar. Next came about 40 cubic meters of topsoil. Again carefully spread.

April 2010

Once the grass seed goes down the new sprinklers went to work.

April 2010

April 2009

The new grass came in about ten days.

1st May 2010

Two weeks later it had thickened up nicely.

15th May 2010

Two months after that it had stopped growing for the winter. But yellow. It's OK I think.

23rd July 2010

Then we were waiting to see what happens in the springtime. The orange seems to be going and the lawn is getting greener. Looking a bit better.

12 September 2010

Then in the middle of October the lawn man came back. He fertilised what was there and said "three weeks"

Three weeks later he was exactly correct.

Notice the contrast of the green house lawn and the natural grasses and flowers of the field.

So on the 7th of November (springtime here in the southern hemisphere remember) there was green grass everywhere and the inevitable lawn mowing.

When you get to read this we will be enjoying our summer out here.
End.

Front gateway

2011-01-11T16:22:00.066+13:00

Our original gate was a plain one at the side of our very long very straight road. We wanted something more.

Original gateway. Winter (with doggie)

First thing we did was to get some road sealing.

New seal roadway down. But nothing else.

Next came a post and rail fence made of Macrocarpa timber. The new gate will be set further into the property than the old one. The old gate remained for a while (with a bit of temporary tin as well.)

Sealed. With Post and Rails. But the original gate. Springtime (with doggie)

The property is fenced to keep out the rabbit plague. It also works to keep one small doggie off the road.

In the meantime we had a special gate made of steel. The idea was to be old colonial, but not fussy Victorian. The gate was made by David Rule, of Handy Solutions in Wanaka.

You will see the decorative bits on the gate but we decided to use others. The first attempt looked a little to much like add ons.

David Rule at work.

David completed, painted the gate and installed it. The resulting curly decorative bits are much better than the original idea.

New Gate. (with doggie)

You can't see it at all but there is rabbit proof netting on the gate. Vital in this area. Rabbit proofing works quite well for doggie as well. Doggie knows his place is following on five paces behind and advising on any planting or placement decisions to be made. He is somewhat mystified why his services are not required out on the road.

Mountain Ranges

2011-01-01T13:16:00.012+13:00

The field sits at the bottom of the landscape and all views are upwards. Despite the dryness of the area there are mighty rivers scouring through gorges dividing the mountains into distinct ranges.

This first photo cheats a bit as it is not taken from our property but from about three kilometers away at a house we used to use before ours was built.

This is the mighty Pisa Range with the Bannockburn Inlet in front.

One of my favourite photos. The Pisa Range. Winter.

This is the view coming in the front gate. The Carrick Range on the other side of the river.

Carrick Range. Winter.

Mt Difficulty which dominates over the top of the garden shed is the northern buttress of the Carrick Range.

Mount Difficulty

The Dunstan Mountains. This photo is taken just over the road from the front gate.

Dunstan Mountains

The Cairnmuir Mountains see the last of the evening light. This photo taken standing in the back doorway of the house.

Cairnmuir Mountains.

The distinctive shape of the Hawkdun Mountains (might be the St Bathans Range) frame the northern end of the open valley. This photo taken on a walk by Lake Dunstan about ten kilometers from home.

Cute Pair and the Hawkdun Mountains. Mmmh. Might be the St Bathan range.

The most dramatic of all, the Remarkable Mountains, lie concealed from the property, behind the Carrick Range. (Yes. "The Remarkable Mountains" is their real name) In this photo, our property lies behind the far pine trees.

The Remarkable Mountains behind the Carrick Range. Cromwell Town in front.

Coming into Central Otago from the coast I can see reoccuring glimpses of the Remarkables standing out through a series of other mountain gaps about one hundred kilometers out. But it needs to be the right light and a lot of luck. That's a different post I think.

Now for my favourite photo (this week anyhow) Not doctored, but cropped a bit.

Evening light, Roses, the Bannockburn Inlet, and the mighty Pisa Range

End

Last Century Techology

2010-12-25T18:46:00.010+13:00

We were coming from town and came across this scene a couple of kilometers from home. Just a dozen people coming together to practice the old crafts on a Sunday. No publicity, no fuss.

Cute Spectator and doggie

Cherries for the world

2010-12-24T09:12:00.002+13:00

It was the night before the night before Christmas and the world is waiting for it's Christmas Cherries to come flying in from New Zealand on those big 747s. Then it rains for the first time in two months. Disaster ! Rain means the Cherries will absorb moisture, swell and split. The world needs it's Christmas feast.

Before dawn I am wakened by the cough of Mr Jones helicopter starting up. Soon he is flying up and down low over his trees to shake the water off the crop. It's a big and old aircraft and very noisy with strobe lights flashing in the darkness through the pine trees.

Next thing, at the first possible light for flying, in comes another fleet of helicopters down the river gorge. Flying real low to find their way under the clouds, these big machines come from the tourist center of Queenstown 30 kilometers upriver. Dangerous stuff, but these are mountain flying experts.

It feels like Vietnam around here with the cavalry thundering in. Add to that the bird scaring machines starting up with an assorted range of thumps and bang's and the term "battle" is not excessive.

Within minutes the Stuart's cherry orchard gets a visit. Alastair will be looking out and thinking. "There goes another thousand dollars."

Help arrives. Photo from the bedroom doorway.

The white nets are the bird protection. You can see a rainbow in the rain. The gorge in the background has the Kawarau river which many of the helicopters have just flown down. Low beneath the clouds. Terrifying. Over the nets the pilot takes his time making sure the trees get a good shaking and the raindrops are removed.

Helicopter, nets, rainbow and gorge.

It's been a very good year for the cherries with minimal rain. Not that that's so good for my other plantings. It's only two hours now since all this fuss started and there are perhaps a dozen helicopters working the local area. The sun is coming out now. There is a lot of blue sky and the picker teams will be arriving.

Blue sky coming. Cherries dried. Time to leave.

The big 747s will be warming up and Christmas in Singapore, Taipei and Munich will not miss big ripe juicy Central Otago summer cherries.

After breakfast I think I will go out and trim and train those grapevines on the pergola. Just look like they need it.

The gold beneath

2010-12-13T10:42:00.027+13:00

There is an abrupt edge where the property ends. Between the 1860s and 1900 the river banks were extensively sluiced for gold. Water under pressure shifts a lot of gravel.

Water moved the gravel. The inconvenient large boulders were stacked away to the side.

The Field is really a vast bed of gravel, the outpourings of the Kawarau gorge, with only a thin skin of turf on top. There is a lot of gold in the gravel.

The problem the old miners had was how to shift it and sort it. Water was the best way. But you had to get the water, use it with enough pressure to shift things and have somewhere for it to drain.

Sluiced area at the rear of the property now. 2010. See our back gate at the top.

There are miles of sluicing remnants along the river.

To get the gold the gravel was washed through a ripple box. The gravel ran on and the gold was trapped. One problem of many was that there were big boulders in the gravel. So a part of the process was a some poor bloke who stood in the river of gravel and mud, picked out the boulders and stacked them to the side out of the way. (some bloke obviously not high in the team pecking order)

What was left then was a series of what look like walls. These "walls" are important and are protected archaeological sites.

Walls still there. 2010. 100 -150 years later.

End

Water race. Irrigation channel or for gold mining?

2010-11-30T06:01:00.010+13:00

There is an old water race running through the tree line. It either was part of an irrigation scheme or more likely was used by the miners prior to 1900 as a water supply for the gold sluicing that cut into the bank of the river right here.

Would have been dug prior to the pine trees being there.

It is not clear to me just where the water came from to fill this water race. The hills on our side of the river do not have big streams to tap into. Perhaps the closest is the 'Roaring Meg' about eight kilometers away.

But there has to have been water in this race. They dug the race for a purpose. Miles of the riverbank here has been sluiced for gold. Using vast amounts of water. In days gone by the energy resources to lift water out of the river were just not available.

The rewards from using water to get the gold is huge. On the other side of the river the Carrick water race was dug across the side of the mountains, crossing a pass to get the water. An incredible feat of handwork engineering which is still used today.

The Carrick race. 34 kilometers long. High up on the other side of the river

Cromwell Development Co. Mrs.Sargood planting a walnut tree,Ripponvale. 1922.

There is a small chance that our race is an irrigation channel. Created for the much later Ripponvale Orchard scheme immediately after World War one. That scheme runs today. But was a failure in it's earlier years. Nearby, but I did not think it was just here.
I just don't know about our old waterrace. Maybe I will strike a lucky contact with an old local who does know.

End

Otto's Frost Fighting Machine

2010-11-23T09:53:00.020+13:00

I had noticed the rather strange contraption in the field just along the road. That place belongs to Otto, in his middle eighties, and still planting walnut trees and developing ideas. An amazing man. But what was that thing in his walnut plantation. ??

I had not bumped into Otto for some time but then a small article appeared in our excellent regional newspaper, the Otago Daily Times. Mystery solved.

"........................Walnut and almond grower Otto Muller is once again putting his brain to work in the fight against frost damage to vulnerable crops. Hailing from Switzerland, Mr Muller introduced the method of using water to protect his and many other growers' crops in Central Otago about four decades ago.

Now, he is using water in a different way on his Pearson Rd property by combining it with hot air and high-powered fans. Mr Muller has designed and built a contraption which disperses warm air over his nut trees, although unlike traditional heat-based frost-protection methods, the warm air stays low around trees instead of immediately rising into the atmosphere.

By shooting water into a furnace burning wood and other vegetable matter, Mr Muller is able to combine moisture with hot air, making it heavier than cold air. The warm, humid air is then sucked into a giant tractor-powered fan connected to the furnace, and blown out over crops. Mr Muller said a rack in the furnace meant water did not extinguish the burning wood below.

"At this stage it's just a set-up to calibrate the three factors of air, moisture and heat. Once I have the combination right, I will use pipes and an engine on the device so it can be placed in the middle of a paddock and disperse the moist, warm air through a rotating pipe across the entire area," he said.

Eventually the warmth of the air would fade, but if applied to trees every few minutes, it would be enough to prevent frost damage, he said.

The benefits of his latest idea include the abundance of wood and other vegetable matter on rural properties - which is normally burned anyway - and the fact potentially polluting fuel particles settle to the ground when moisture is applied to emissions.................."

Ah. So he has to hitch it up to his Tractor to make it go.

End.

Thyme

2010-11-17T17:42:00.004+13:00

".....................the wild thyme was in full bloom, like a thin purple-white haze rising from the sun-baked earth. The plant covered the hills with a dry but surprisingly woolly fleece that crunched underfoot, each step an explosion of aroma like a puff of powdered perfume........"

November is when our dry rocky ground turns shades of pink and mauve. Even from many miles away whole hillsides take on the hue of thyme flowers. And the scent is in the breeze.

I came across this scene about 10km from home.

Gathering Thyme Honey. 8th November 2010

If they say the honey is from from Thyme flowers. I guess we can believe it.

This is a great link to a honey company. www.airborne.co.nz/Thyme.shtml

Much closer to home, only 50 meters from our back door, the neighbours have a nice deck, where they invite us to sit and force us to drink wine. A beautiful time in the evening.

The next two photos, taken from the deck, should be viewed side by side. The thyme in the foreground is much more luxuriant than that just over the fence which you can see. The rabbits trim it a bit out there.

The big dip, left to right, contains the mighty Kawarau river. Over the river you can see the vineyards off Felton Road, famous for Pinot Noir wine.

November 12th 2010. Photo by Niall Watson.

8th November 2010. These plants about 400mm high. Cromwell Gorge.

The Thyme was first noticed here in the 1860s and 1870s. Gathered around the mining camps and colonising the disturbed ground. There has been an explosion of it in the last 50 years which is attributed to the reduction of the rabbit plague. There are now several thousand hectares over about 50 to 80 Kilometers.

It is also said that this is the only wild population of Thymus Vulgaris outside of it's natural range in Spain and the Mediterranean. But I would be sceptical of that idea.

As I hunt to reduce the rabbit menace, each step sends a wonderful haze of aromatic scent. If I need to lie down to steady the rifle then the scent remains in my clothes for days. No wonder it was used medicinally and features in so many recipes.

End

California's State Flower. In New Zealand.

2010-11-13T21:49:00.035+13:00

California springtime is in April and and that is when the California Poppy blooms there. But here in New Zealand it is right now, November.

This is by our back gate down to the river, a magnificent display, amongst the rocks gouged out by the goldminers of the 1800s. So why are those flowers here. They, like so much of the plantlife on this river bank came here with the gold rushes. Many people went to San Franciso in 1849 and came on to Australia in the 1850s and to Central Otago, New Zealand in 1862.

Flowers amongst the gold mining rocks

At the back gate by the river.

Its botanical name, Eschsholtzia californica, was given by Adelbert Von Chamisso, a naturalist and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, who dropped anchor in San Francisco in 1816 in a bay surrounded by hills of the golden flowers. It became the state flower in 1903. Every year April 6 is California Poppy Day.

The poppies around our local area are yellow. But I also see orange ones further away. I was driving when I saw some red ones!

But the red ones turned out to be Flander poppy (the soldier poppy)

Here are some orange flowers mixed in with yellow.

Also there were some white ones, or maybe cream. Not seen those before.

Update:


27th November 2011. 45th Parallel. California Poppies in New Zealand.

The Forty - fifth parallel runs left to right horizontally across the map. It marks the halfway point between the equator and the south pole on the frozen continent of Antarctica. The 45th parallel is about ten kilometers north of our place. So we are closer to the South Pole. The 45th parallel in the USA is just north of Salem in Oregon. I guess the "California" poppy grows there too.

It's coming into summer here and Autumn (fall) in California. So while the poppies are in bloom here I guess they won't be in bloom in California until May next year.

Stylish Wood Stack

2010-11-09T22:05:00.001+13:00

Practical things can purposefully be made beautiful. This should be called "Woodpile by Theresa -with Peonies"

A wreck in the river

2010-11-03T06:23:00.027+13:00

A regular trip takes me down river to the coast. About 80 kilometers down there is one brief glimpse of something unusual showing in the water. I was recently told it was a gold dredge so I stopped one time and took some photos.

Roxburgh. Clutha River.

At Roxburgh. Clutha River.

It seems that these are the remains of the 'Jubilee' gold Dredge that accidently sank here in January 1906. It is amazing that anything visible still remains, given the power and ferocity of this great river tearing at it 24 hours a days for over 100 years ever since.

The area of trees on the far side of the river is the 'Ladysmith' gold mining area which was hugely significant in those years. You will note the names of the era, both in regard to the Boer War, and the Queen Victoria.

In the early 1900s the gold dredges were at their peak. With about 100 dredges on 150 km of river. Victorian Technology at it's best.

Multiple dredges on the Lowburn flats. About 10km from home.

The most successful gold Dredge of all time was the "Lady Ranfurly." Which lies beneath the water just at our back gate on the north bank of the Kawarau.

Lady Ranfurly. The most successful of all time.

Some were simply huge. The Austral Dredge, below, worked Lowburn about 10kms from us, until 1952. It finished because it ran out of accessible ground.

The Austral-NZ gold-dredge at Lowburn, the world's largest gold-dredge

End

Noisy Australians

2010-10-25T21:55:00.004+13:00

As I checked an irrigation line across the field I came across this. Right out in the middle of nowhere.

It was immediately obvious this belonged to the two large Spur Winged Plovers that make such a fuss day and night. Every time I come within a hundred meters of these two they set up such a great racket. And try to distract you from the nest. Quite intrusive at times. Also they can kick up a fuss in the middle of the night.

They stand off and watch the nest in the daytime. It is said they will attack you to defend the nest. At night one seems to sit on the eggs.

I just can't get close to these birds.

Not my photo

Originally from Australia, the first pair of Spur Winged Plover first appeared in New Zealand in 1932 at Invercargill airport, about 200 kilometers south of here. It has since become common in the South island and the lower North Island.

As close to the birds as I can get

Sequoia

2010-10-17T17:52:00.001+13:00

The Sequoia, from California, grows to be the biggest tree in the world. This one is doing the best out of the twenty or so planted on the property.

This one was planted by me. But such a lot of the plants here came with the gold miners from California in the 1860s.

Planted spring 2006. Over two meters tall in 2010.

There were no trees here at all when the miners came. Just tussock grass stretching into the distance.

Central Otago seems to suit plants from California. Also a very cute thing on the property is the flock of California Quail.

In the 1800s there were the gold rushes in Sacramento, 1849, then Ballerat and Bendigo in the state of Victoria Australia in the 1850s and then Otago in 1861. Later there was the Yukon in Alaska. There was a great movement of people around the Pacific rim. Many of the local families here were originally American. They bought their plants with them

The two big trees below were planted in 1867, are already huge but still young. They are protected as historic and significant items.

Central Otago Sequoias. Planted 1867

You can see how big these trees are by comparison with the houses. Our property, "the field of gold" is about five kilometers away in this photo. At the foot of the mountains, in front of the snow covered peaks. The church is where Theresa and I were married in 2007.

End

Two Orchards

2010-10-06T21:49:00.000+13:00

Greengage is a lovely fruit, a sort of plum. But you don't see them sold very often, possibly because they don't store, transport and process well.

I planted five fruit trees, and the group is now called "The Orchard". Five weeks later (02.10.10) the greengages are in flower. Very pleasing when we get some greengages to eat.

New Greengage trees in flowers

But looking past the greengages you might notice a thin line of blossom in a neighbouring abandoned almond orchard.

Over there I find much more impressive blossom even though the trees have have had no attention or any irrigation at all for some years. I have no idea of how old these trees might be.

In the distance is the Dunstan mountains, with some snow patches still, although it will all be gone in a week or two.

Almond Orchard. Dunstan Mountains behind. (02.10.2010)

Almond blossom

Keeping out the Rabbits

2010-09-28T22:14:00.001+13:00

Keeping rabbits off the field is a constant battle. There are ten thousand rabbits outside fighting to get in. And one or two desperate to get out. Desperate because if I see a rabbit I will shoot it.

The final solution.

The entire property is rabbit fenced with netting into the ground. In recent years as the area has developed there is more fencing around the neighbourhood the rabbits have been restricted. But they will get in unless there is a complete boundary and everything is blocked. Including the gates.

The rabbits were introduced into New Zealand in the 1800's and became a plague, destroying the entire landscape and vegetation.

The netting goes into the ground. Notice the rabbit scratchings.

Keeping out the rabbits is important so that anything planted will survive. Also there is a chance, without rabbits, that some of the natural vegetation will return.in some areas of the field.

Tunneling for gold

2010-09-26T21:03:00.000+13:00

Out the back gate the land falls away steeply into the river. The Lady Ranfurly gold dredge took incredible amounts of gold from bottom of the river right here in the early 1900's. ( see post "Gold in the river")

That started people thinking. As they do when gold is to be had for the inventive.

This photo, from our back gate shows Scotland point, where before the lake was created and the water raised. It was the site of two mining operations. The entrances were close to the original river because that enabled tunnels to be drained.

Scotland Point mine entrances. This bank of the river. To the right of centre. Now deep under water.

Geological surveys of the area produced a theory that the Kawarau River once flowed under the flat land where we are, probably caused by a sandstone bar redirecting the flow north. If this was the case, then a lead of gold could be found under the flat and be very rich indeed.

Scotland Point, is named after a Mr Scotland who in the 1880's found the first traces of that buried river bed. Building small tunnels just large enough to crawl inside, he dug up the wash while lying on his back or stomach, and placed it into a tray attached to a rope, which was pulled out by his wife, who would run it through a baby's cradle. Many attempts were made to find Scotland's workings but they were never found.

In 1932 Percy Bell, Bill Kilgour, Richie Bell and Zip and Lance Hooper, during weeks of back-breaking work, used picks and shovels and, occasionally, explosives to put drives into the sandstone cliffs. It was the midst of the Depression and the Government started paying a miner's benefit of about 14 shillings and 3 pence a week to assist men in prospecting for gold.

Bill Kilgour's two brothers and other local men were brought in to work the Bell Kilgour and Bell Hooper mines as they moved towards the foothills, finding average daily takes of 8lb to 10lb (3.6kg to 4.5kg), which was "very rich indeed" Finally, the Bell Kilgour and Bell Hooper Gold Mining companies were formed, and continued to find significant amounts of gold from Scotland's lead.

According to Professor Park, an eminent mining authority at the time, it was one the most significant finds of alluvial gold deposits found anywhere in New Zealand since the 1800s. However the project did not continue for long. I have not learned why. Although obviously if it had continued to be possible to get the gold then tunneling would have continued.

Yes. There is a house.

2010-09-21T20:23:00.000+12:00

Yes. There is a house. Some people have inquired. Here is a photo.

House in Summer. December 2009. No lawn yet.

House in winter. September 2010. Got a lawn now.

The House is built for inside - outside living. Winter here is the coldest in New Zealand, but we do have the hottest New Zealand summers here.

Dredge buckets

2010-09-16T14:19:00.000+12:00

We have two large dredge buckets, which are remnants of the gold dredges that worked our river one hundred years ago. The buckets were linked in a chain and bought up gravel from the bottom of the river.

See the post "Gold from the River" with pictures of the Lady Ranfurly dredge

http://thefieldofgold.blogspot.co.nz/2010/08/gold-from-river.html

There were also many other dredges. See the post "A Wreck in the River"

http://thefieldofgold.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/wreck-in-river.html?utm_source=BP_recent

Relics of Victorian Industry

Buckets as they were in a gold dredge

We will use the buckets as a feature as we build the garden around around the house. The question is. Just where. And maybe with a few large central schist rocks. The buckets are too big and heavy to shift without a crane so we could also use it to handle quite big rocks.

Then grow flowers over it.

The design questions are
1. What to do that would be good.
2. How to avoid creating "A visual symphony" also known as "Plain awful".

Why curve a driveway.

2010-09-03T14:14:00.000+12:00

Well - to create visual interest I guess. There are 175 meters in the first stretch of drive. Maybe it would have been quite fantastic to put that as a straight line allee. Especially as we planted large trees anyway. But we have curved it, right then left then right.

The idea was to put in some curves. With major tree planting to either side. Also with gaps. The trees are, and will be gorgeous the gaps visually are more important than the trees.

Winter.

The assumption is you will be in a car. And looking about.

So the sequence is.

a. In the gate from the front. Across the open. Curve a little to the right and into the trees.

b. Trees on the right cease. Gap opens. See across the fence into the next field.

c. Curve to the left. Trees start again on the left.

d. On the right a gap opens. See the house. Also a view across the field.

e. Back into the trees. Curve left. New gap opens on the left.

There is a judgement to make. Curved enough to be interesting, but not so meandering as to be irritating.

I have been trying to relocate / remember that term used in landscaping. The one that relates to country houses, where you have a teasing view of the house, carefully arranged as you drive up. But then you don't see the house again until you is quite close. There is a word for it. Can't remember. Comments please.

I will add to this when the leaves come onto the trees in summer. And the pictures will be different.

To be continued.

Gold from the river.

2010-08-25T18:16:00.000+12:00

The remains of two gold dredges lie in the river right at the end of the property. One, the Lady Ranfurly Dredge was the most successful of all time. She worked quite a short stretch of river right here.

The view from our back gate is across the river to the vineyards of Felton Road. When the Lady Ranfurly had done it's work it was left on the river bank right in the centre of this picture. In 1992 it was covered by the water of the raised Lake Dunstan. The Lady Ranfurly lies there still.

To the left of this photo, now also under water, lies the Molyneaux Dredge, abandoned in 1942.

View from the back gate: Kawarau River, now Lake Dunstan.

There are massive amounts of gold still here, although that in the bottom of the river is now gone. Well maybe

Our back gate, and the drive down to the river was the supply point for the dredge.

The Lady Ranfurly. Launched 1898

The amounts of gold recovered by these machines, coal powered, with only a crew of half a dozen men was incredible.

The record haul

In the week of 7 July 1902 The Electric Gold Dredging Company's Kawarau River dredge, Lady Ranfurly, won 1,234 ounces of gold. Here the dredgemaster, several dredgemen, the manager and ledger-keeper of the Cromwell Bank of New Zealand and a shareholder, Mrs G. H. Stephenson, look at the week’s haul.

On another occasion it took over 600 ounces out of an area 15 feet by 15 feet.

The Lady Ranfurly continued on until 1918 as the returns diminished. Then she was hauled out and left. Just out of our back gate.

End

Where is the 'Field of Gold'

2010-07-20T17:34:00.000+12:00

Between the town of Cromwell and the village of Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand.
The property is on the bank of the Kawarau River, right where it becomes Lake Dunstan.

We are in the middle of the Central Otago winegrowing area, famous for Pinot Noir, and the vines of the flagship 'Felton Road' winery feature in this photo.

We are surrounded by Mountains, the Pisa Range, The Dunstan Range, the Cairnmuir Range and the Carrick Range.

It's thirty five minutes to Queenstown airport, following the river up through the Kawarau Gorge. Forty five minutes to Wanaka and thirty minutes to Alexandra

The river is the dark slash running left to right across this photo. The field is on the far side of the river, the golden flat area on the very right edge of the photo.

www.davidwallphoto.com The field is on the other side of the river. Behind the row of green trees which grow right on the top of the steep bank.

www.davidwallphoto.com The field is on the left side of the river. With a row of green trees on two sides.

Adventure to the front gate

2010-07-12T22:57:00.001+12:00

On 3rd July we had a cracker frost. All surfaces are grey and it's still. As the sun comes on, starting with our mountain, everything turns silver and gold.

It's time for an adventure to the front gate with the beautiful granddaughter and the faithful dog Bud.

And it's the start of a day where the only place to be is outside.

The Fig Farmer

2010-07-12T18:12:00.000+12:00

You might think this shows a good crop in 2010. But in the end we got only three ripe figs. There were plenty of figs on the trees, but dry and inedible. Two years before on the very new trees we got what we thought good results. What happened?

The trees were planted in January 2006. Purchased from Southwood in Christchurch there were four "Mrs Williams" and three "French Sweet". Planted in a circle at four meter spaces.

In March 2008 we got some great fruit and the fig farmer was so pleased as you can see.

In 2009 there was plenty of fruit but dry and inedible. In 2010 there was a lot of fruit but only a few were ripe.

I am not sure of the problem. It does not seem to be a site problem. Maybe there was not enough pollination. The information seems to say that it just happens sometimes. Also maybe there is not a problem. It's just the trees are young.

The remedial advice seems to be very biblical in tone. In summary the advice is "Dung them and it that does not work - root them out."

So they had some sheep dung. About three sacks for eight trees. We will see what happens.

Sometimes it's very cold here.

Ice on the fig trees on July 11th 2010

It was minus five degrees centigrade at sunrise At 11.00am when this photo was taken in bright sunlight it was still minus four.

Other times in the summer it can be 35 degrees centigrade for weeks at a time.